Why are my discus babies growing so differently ? One is big one is small

[candymancan]

I have these discus in a 50 gallon tank, there are 6 others with them.. My biggest currectly is about 4.5 inches in size almost 5 I have 2 about that size right now.. The other 2 discus are from a local breeder I got them as babies barely 2 inches in size.. Supposedly bred from Stendker discus from discus hans.. I saw the parents and they were nice looking a mix between a blue turqouis and some other I forgot.

I got them back on Nov 11th I believe.. It is now April 2nd so I have had em for about 4 almost 5 months now.. They started showing color about 2-3 months ago, but one of them isn't growing at all.. He is literally the same size as when I got him.. No joke.. But the other one is growing so quickly he is actually almost as big as my bigger discus.. He is probably around 4 inches in length now.

I bought 2 more discus from this local breeder Feb 2nd. They were orange discus all orange. the parents were also from discus hans he said.. I saw the parents they were HUGE probably around 8-9 inches at least. I bought babies from him. Its been 2 months now and one of them is still the same size as he was when I got him barely 2 inches.. The other one is literally almost twice his size now.. Its so weird..

I keep the water at 84, I change 70% of it every 2-3 days, I have the tank overfiltered using an eheim 2217 and a HOB with purigen.. I don't use ferts, yes I have a few plants but not a lot.. I vacuum every water change.. I feed them 2 types of foods 3-4 times a day. I feed Tetra Min flakes with shrimp once a day as 3 of my discus like to eat them. (The bigger discus in this pic eats the flakes the little ones doesn't) I also feed them freeze dried bloodworm 3x a day.. All my discus eat.. Some are pigs, others scavenge on the bottom.. They all poop normally, they don't look sick. They all come to the glass when I look at them or when they think they are getting fed they come to the top.. So I don't understand why 2 of the 4 babies I got are growing very well but the other 2 are literally the same size... I don't have much hope in getting the first one to grow since I have had him for 4-5 months and he wont even grow and inch vs his brother who is aproaching 4 inches or so now.

Is this normal for discus ? For a few of them to just not grow and the others to explode ?

See the first pic.. The one of the right is the one who isn't growing and the on of the left is the other who is litteraly 2x its size now..

And the 2nd pic is the orange ones I have had for 2 months now.. See the bottom one how much bigger he is over the top orange one ?

 

[Brookster123]

Think the trick.with juvies is aggressive wc's and feedings. Never really know what was going on in the grow out tank.. if I had attempted to raise any fish this past winter they would have been slightly neglected....

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[jmats]

Some fish have a pecking order. Usually, fish that colonize have a hierarchy. Your little fish is probably just at the bottom of that chain. In other words, the more dominant fish will stunt the weaker fishes growth. Your larger discus will be your alpha male; the king of the tank.


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[PoppaRyno]

Some fish have a pecking order. Usually, fish that colonize have a hierarchy. Your little fish is probably just at the bottom of that chain. In other words, the more dominant fish will stunt the weaker fishes growth. Your larger discus will be your alpha male; the king of the tank.


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Agreed. Also I have been told discus release hormones as a dominant fish. The other sub dominant ones will have slow growth from that hormone. I haven't researched this, but breeding discus, I have witnessed the pecking order thing quite a bit. And once that pecking order is established, they seem to grow and eat accordingly to that order.

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[coralbandit]

I got shot at for mentioning GIH in another thread last week!
Discus should be raised in groups that are equal size.
Info mentioned above is accurate.
Here's a word or two from Jack Wattley on the way under researched topic;

JacKWattleyDiscus
The GI Toxin or Hormone has been in play for the longest of times. We have run physical experiments sometimes planned others accidentally. Each and every time the smaller fish in the tank even from different strains have just fallen behind and become stunted. Hobbyists today always call the hatchery asking why their smaller 3" discus aren't growing as big as their 5" single fish after 1 years time.
The experiment is being experienced by all who are mixing different size fish every day and don't know that the GIT exists. And no you cannot remove it by doing water changes. I do those on a daily basis and it does not help.
If more true scientific research was placed on the discus community, so much would be revealed. Without the scientific proof we have to accept the results and theorize on the why's.
Can you immagine one little scientific experiment that told us that by adding a little something to our tanks it would diffuse it.  : Whishfull thinking.
To shed some light to the rest of the hobbyists, try to purchase and maintain all the discus in a tank of same size to avoid this problem. If you have different sizes in the same tank, get another tank. Heck that's how I did it, except that now I have 326 tanks and too much work.
Gabe

 

[PoppaRyno]

GIH is real. It's very prevalent in discus. No one seems to know abt it. A few of us have been doing research on it here, w/a few expirements . I have witnessed the effects. But we're not scientists. So it's only personal research. I'm not sure why some people still refute GIH and it's effects.

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